Manga Review: Pokemon Black and White Volume Eight by Hidenori Kusaka

Pokemon Black and White Volume Eight is a manga based on the Pokemon Black and Pokemon White video games. The manga was written by Hidenori Kusaka, and the art was done by Satoshi Yamamoto. Viz Media released this manga in North America through its VizKids imprint in 2012. Pokemon Black and White is rated “A,” which means it is suitable for readers of all ages.

Volume Eight begins with White having an encounter with N from Team Plasma. N wants to talk with her about why she makes Pokemon perform for people.

During the conversation, N tells White that her Tepig Gigi wants to fight, but that she doesn’t pay attention to that. N has his Servine attack Gigi, and Gigi fights back. Gigi decides to stay with N, which devastates White.

After White and Black are reunited, they are taken to the Battle Subway, which was another initiative being worked on for Nimbasa City in addition to the Pokemon musical. Here, they meet Marshal of the Elite Four and Alder (the Pokemon League Champion of the Unova Region). By the end of the volume, White makes a very unexpected decision. This decision ultimately causes Black and White to go their separate ways.

It should be noted that at the bottom of the last page, it reads, “To be continued in the Pokemon Adventures Black and White graphic novel series-coming soon!” Seeing this, it means that there will be no further volumes of these Pokemon Black and White volumes. However, I don’t know when VizKids starts releasing Pokemon Adventures Black and White if they will collect these eight volumes into bigger volumes first, or if they will simply continue the story from where it left off at the end of Pokemon Black and White Volume Eight.

VizKids’ decision to release these eight volumes relatively quickly after the chapters were released in Japan was a little on the baffling side to me. On the one hand, they could get the material out here a little faster, but on the other, it meant that the volumes were relatively small and skimpy in nature. And now seeing that the story won’t continue until VizKids starts releasing Pokemon Adventures Black and White, it makes this decision even more puzzling.

As a reader, this is a little frustrating, because this volume ends at a critical plot point, and there’s no telling when VizKids will release more of the story in North America.

At this point, about the only way I could recommend anyone to pick these up is if it turns out that when VizKids releases Pokemon Adventures Black and White, that it jumps right back into the story where Volume Eight left off.

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About Lesley Aeschliman

Lesley Aeschliman is a freelance writer who began writing on a full-time basis in 2007. She has served as the Anime editor at BellaOnline.com, and she also writes and maintains two blogs: Lesley's Musings... on Anime and Manga and AeschTunes.